Ill-fated cyclist fights to hold on

Ill-fated cyclist fights to hold on

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Had Andry Sudrajat, a national cyclist, known he would not be
going to the upcoming Asian Games he would not have leased his
small store he and his family rely on to survive.

Andry recalled that when he was called-up by the Indonesian
Cycling Association (ISSI) in October last year, he decided to
focus on cycling.

That meant having to abandon the shop which by then served as
his family's only financial resource.

"I leased it because I thought I could not focus on training
while I did the selling," he said from Tangerang, the western
suburb of Jakarta, when contacted by The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Andry, 29 years old, said that his small shop sold staple
foods and electronic appliances.

"I sold big, I cleared the storage and moved out," he said.

The pre-Asian Games preparations did not end up going his way.
He was eliminated from the team after he was declared to have
failed a fitness test at the Jatiluhur reservoir from Jan. 7 to
Jan. 13.

The test, administered by the National Sports Council (KONI),
saw almost all of the 171 athletes preparing for the Busan trip
undergo a medical screening and psychological testing. Andry and
rower Tiori Simarmata did not get through.

"I'm definitely disappointed. I learned about the news when I
was at my hotel. Pak Yosep (an ISSI official) told me that KONI
would send me back home because I flopped in the test," he said.

His voice signaled despair. "I have nothing to do now. I'm
just idle," he said, adding that he had come to the call-up with
high confidence and optimism about the Busan 2002 Asian Games.

Andry said he was introduced to the sport by his friends and
first joined the national training center for the Manila
Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in 1990 but missed inclusion.

His international debut was at the Hiroshima Asian Games four
years later when he broke into the top eight Asian riders.

He won a gold medal at the 1995 SEA Games in Chiang Mai, but
his performance declined in Jakarta in 1997 when he only won
bronze.

However, he was the best in his class at the national level
when he won a gold at the Surabaya 2000 National Games (PON).

But he said it was the Asian Championship in Tehran in 1995
that he remembered most, when in the face of stiff competition he
won silver.

Cycling did not feature in Brunei 1999. In Kuala Lumpur 2001,
it did, but Andry opted not to go for a contention. He skipped
the tournament when he abandoned his training due to family
commitments.

"I quit the training ground and stayed away from the
tournament because my wife had a high-risk pregnancy," he said.
The child later miscarried and died.

Andry was one of the three riders specializing in the Olympic
Sprint along with Sama'i from East Java and Dadang Haris from
Yogyakarta.

Didi Sudiyanto, one of the coaching staff members, said that
Andry's role in the team would probably be taken either by Wawan
Setyobudi or Agus Yulianto.

Although he said that he could accept the decision, Andry
expressed disbelief about the results of the test, given the
tough training regime he adopted before the Jatiluhur program.

"I had trained for three months before going to Jatiluhur. I
did the exercises for endurance and speed around two hours on
average almost every day, except for Sunday.

"I wish I had been confronted with the details of the test so
that I would have been able to pinpoint the weaknesses and target
them in the future," he said.

Despite his disappointment, Andry said that he would continue
training and hoped that he would be included in the team for the
Hanoi SEA Games 2003 in Vietnam.

"I will simply keep training and see whether or not I have the
power," he said, adding that he hoped to compete in the 2004
National Games (PON) in Palembang, South Sumatra.